Smart Vending Machines at Stadiums can Reduce Staffing Costs

Service automation is expanding its reach to retail, entertainment, home automation and events. Smart vending machines are one such technology which can overwhelm departments which need repetitive tasks, especially those trying to reduce operating costs and improve efficiency.

Issues with Staffing

A common issue with customer-facing staff is their efficiency that depends on many factors. When one of the staffing personnel is on unplanned leave, the burden of that work shifts to others. It can affect operations and compromise customer experience.

The personal mindset of that individual can decide the course of customer interaction.

How automation can fix the issues

Automation brings a certainty to the operations. Replacing customer-facing staff with smart vending machines automates the process. These vending machines don’t ask for sick leave, can work round the clock without complaining and will not face commute issues and hence offer better ROI.

What are Smart Vending Machines

Smart vending machines are self-serviceable and intelligent customer-facing kiosks that can interact and deliver excellent user-centric experiences. They can accept cash/cashless payments, identify barcodes, fingerprints or RFID, generate an invoice and recognize speech and converse.

Around 25% of buyers assert smart interactive vending machines at physical stores will make their product discovery and purchasing easier. Thus a stadium where we have many customer-facing modules can make the best use of smart vending machines.

Few Case Studies

Ticket Vending: Audience can buy tickets at the entrance of the stadium via cash/cashless transactions. If they have already booked them online, they can receive the event tickets at the entrance after going through a smart access gateway. Access can be granted through face detection or thumb impression.

Food Ordering: Vending machines can connect users to restaurants in the stadium and allow them to order food. It will have menu discovery, customized offers, and options to schedule delivery.

Free Drink Vending: Consumers can receive a free beverage for watching 30 seconds of advertisements. The camera fitted at the top of the kiosk can track eye movement and helps us draw AI based insights on consumer interests. It can also detect the face and notify the user if he has already reached the quota for that day.

Coffee Vending: Self-serviceable coffee machines can be installed at spaces like lobby, reception, recreation room or dining room where the purchasing possibility is occasional. Allotting staff for every such vending machine can inflate costs and results in wastage of human resource.

Merchandise Vending: When the game fever is picking up, fans throng to buy merchandise of their favorite team. Thus merchandise vending machines can be installed outside the stadium galleries. A bigger display for these machines can augment the customer experience. This pushes bigger apparel brands to elevate their pitch via these outlets.

A stadium can enjoy better ROI by reducing human factor in their day to day operations. This improves efficiency and reduce the possibility of human variations. Smart vending machines can also be installed to sell packaged food, vend first aid tools, and non-prescription medicines. All it needs is responsive displays connected to the internet over a secure protocol.

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